ApocalyPOTO Now
by JosephineCanonIsRad
Summary: Time: The near future. Place: Europe. Mission: Seek & destroy the spreading plague of ignorance & violence that threatens to unmake the world as we know it. Heroes: A girl with a space between her teeth, her dumb big brothers & their big dumb friends.


"You scared?"

"No!"

"C'mon, Gogo."

"Stop calling me that! I'm not—"

"It's either this or another afternoon of coffin detail with a toothbrush."

"Ugh. Don't go all scorpion and grasshopper on me, arsewipe. Besides, you can't tell me what to—OW!" Goethe yelped as each of her brothers looped an elbow under her armpits and lifted her clear off her feet. They began frog-marching her towards the grand stone building; a cloud of dust curling up under her treadmilling feet as her toes barely scraped the ground. Changing tactics, she wrenched her legs outwards, landing kicks on her brother's kneecaps. The twins let out a simultaneous "fuckshit!" and dropped her to her knees. She scrambled to her feet and brushed the dirt off her jeans, scowling defiantly at Phoenix and Thanos, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Christ…" she muttered. "Don't go telling me you two are twenty-six when you act like you're six." As the two sandy-haired young men got to their feet and towered over their sister with an expectant look of challenge, Goethe hooked her thumbs through her belt-loops and turned on her heel, walking confidently towards the building while whistling part of an aria she couldn't recall the name of.

"Aw shit she's actually gonna do it…" Thanos hissed at Phoenix.

"You asked me too, moron, and I can still hear you!" Goethe yelled over her shoulder at her brothers. "Better luck next time on your _sotto voce_, idiot!" She stood before the doorway and glanced up at it for only a moment before stepping into the shade inside, feeling instant relief from the summer sun. "Thanos always did suck at music…" she said to herself. She grinned crookedly as she recalled the stories she'd heard of her brother's musical flailings in the elementary instrumental and vocal music classes that were mandatory on the commune until age ten. Thanos had dropped the music class on his and Phoenix's tenth birthday—quite literally, in fact, as he even went so far as to throw his oboe off Faust Bridge into the swirling rapids of the river that cut across one thickly forested corner of the expansive property that housed the Lerouxian complex. It had earned Thanos six months of being grounded, but more often than not, he wheedled Phoenix into standing in for an hour or three while he disappeared, hell-bent on mischief of some diabolical sort. Phoenix would sit, scribbling in his sketchbook, which he hid when he heard someone coming—artistic talent being the dead give-away difference between the brothers. Thanos had his fair share of ingenuity and know-how—how else would he manage half of the weird shit he got into? –but Phoenix had the lion's share of the more "classical" arts of music and drawing.

"At least," Thanos was wont to say, "until they make kicking ass and taking names a legitimate art-form."

Goethe was a rather mediocre talent in comparison to Phoenix, but a tolerable artist in comparison to Thanos. She hadn't gone so far as to give in to the compulsion to drop her violin into the gorge, but then, she didn't like going near the bridge since she'd heard her parents named her Goethe in honour of the bridge, where she was conceived. She shuddered at the memory.

_Ew_.

No one needed to think about their parents…doing _that._ Ever.

"Told you she was scared."

Goethe whirled to face her brothers, nearly smacking into the eye-level chests that blocked the doorway back out into the sun.

"I'm not! I'm here, aren't I?"

"Chin up, Gogo, we're not gonna let Erik get you," said Phoenix with a smirk, pinching Goethe's chin lightly.

"Piss off, he's not real!" she snapped, smacking his hand away from her face.

"Then there's nothing to be frightened of, Sis."

"I'm not the one who keeps on bringing up fear. Are you coming with me or not girls?" she said coolly, fastening her grey gaze, sparkling with challenge, on them as she turned back towards the darkness.

She took two blind steps before she gave a muffled shriek as she collided with something solidly alive that reached out to try and steady her as she reeled backwards, landing hard on her behind. A low chuckle floated in the darkness before her eyes fully adjusted from the bright sunlight, peering upwards at the form that blocked her way.

"…Gun?"

The guys broke into laughter; Thanos and Phoenixs' more raucous than the gentler humour of their friend Gunnar as he held out a hand and pulled her to her feet. For the second time in as many minutes, she brushed dust and grit from her pants with a scowl.

"Funny, guys. Real funny."

"Oh don't act like that was our fault—that was entirely you."

Goethe turned pink in the dark. Didn't she know it.

"So how many of us are coming?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Depends…" said Phoenix with a shrug.

"I hope you didn't spread this around," she said seriously, a line appearing between her eyebrows. "If you're just setting me up to get caught—I'll sure as hell take you all down with me."

"Would we do that?"

"Yes."

"Smart girl. But no."

"Then who--?"

"Sorry we're late…" called a voice with a thick Cockney accent as Ariadne ducked through the door, rumpling her short blonde hair in a habitual gesture that indicated her short temper was close to going off. "Nox decided she wanted to come, too," she jerked her thumb over her shoulder to the girl with long dark hair who had entered behind her. One would hardly know they were sisters to look at them, and they were only three years apart.

Goethe went over to Nox.

"I'm glad you came…" she whispered, squeezing her best friend's hand.

"No worries, Ari," said Thanos smoothly, draping his arm around the tall girl's shoulders. "It's Bring Your Kid Sister To Breaking Into The Sanctum Day."

"We're not really breaking into anything, are we?" asked Nox worriedly.

"No," said Gunnar, shoving his hands into his pockets and shaking his head. "The Sanctum's never locked…there's just the understanding that no one will ever go in there, since it's forbidden and all. It's not guarded. No one will know," he said calmly, in a Scottish accent that was thicker than his skull, according to Goethe.

"You talk like you know," said Goethe, cocking her head to the side and looking keenly at her brother's oldest friend.

"We did it. When we were fourteen, Gun had just turned fifteen…" said Thanos easily, with a shrug.

"What?! You broke into the Sanctum and didn't tell me?!"

"It wasn't breaking anything—and you were seven! You wouldn't have--"

"Can you guys drop it?" said Ari with more than mild annoyance.

"Sorry, sweetness…I'll make it up to you," said Thanos with a wicked grin.

"Forget him," said Phoenix, on her other side, "_I'm_ the one blessed with a nine inch—"

"NOT HEARING THIS!" said Goethe through gritted teeth, as she covered her ears.

Ari rolled her eyes and shrugged off their arms.

"Like I told you last week—still into women. Forecast for next week is a hundred-percent chance of digging chicks with flurries of girl-on-girl fantasies throughout the afternoon."

"…can we watch?"

Thanos' only answer was a light sock in the gut from Ari's clenched fist.

"Anyone else?" asked Gunnar in an authoritative tone.

"Lir said he might come later, when he's done work, but not to wait for him. Louis and Alfred were going at it pretty heatedly over something in Moncharmin's memoirs, last I checked…" said Nox, idly twisting a hank of her hair into a slick coil before letting it spring back into a kind of half-dreadlock.

Her boyfriend Lirit worked long hours as an apprentice in the Transliteration Guild, taking minutes during the meetings between the Head Translators (the selfsame Louis and Alfred); meetings which were often fraught with argument as they struggled to maintain Leroux's original meaning and nuance within not only the English translation, but the Spanish and Japanese versions they'd been commissioned to produce for the communes that were being put in order in other countries around the globe.

Thus far the only one of its kind, the commune had been built in the north of England and had attracted purists from every corner of the English-speaking world. Although representatives came and went, and several adults were fluent in more than one language, the mother tongue of all children born and raised was English. French was mandatory, as was music, and any languages beyond those were taken up only at the desire of the pupil. The lack of compulsory learning of any subjects beyond these led many to indulge their natural curiosities, and many displayed an aptitude for various languages and areas of specialization from a young age. No one was perfect, and not everything meshed, but between any given group there was enough knowledge, not only linguistic, to get them by in nearly any part of the world.

Gunnar spoke fluent Italian and had, what Thanos called, a Keen Interest in Blades. To date, no one knew exactly the extent of his abilities, as he was naturally shy and it appeared he had cultivated his talents in semi-secrecy. The twins knew most everything, as usual; and as usual, they weren't saying anything without demands of ridiculously impossible bribery. The most Goethe knew was that he was a decent cook who managed to chop things quickly and almost without looking and never managed to damage his fingers. Vain attempts to copy his methods had left her thin brown hands covered in scrolling scars. Gunnar'd only ever grinned as Goethe yelped and swore and made a dash for the Band-Aids.

"Leave the cooking to me, Gogo. Most people prefer their salads _sans_ human flesh."

So she'd sit, scowling, with her fingers in her mouth, waiting for the bleeding to stop and feeling like a right git as she tried to think of something smart to say in reply.

She never could.

Thanos and Phoenix were the Dream Team. What one couldn't do, the other could, or at least make a show of bluffing enough to freak out the opposition into backing down. Born gamblers and sweet-talkers, they had a seemingly uncharacteristic interest in history and had even go as far as to teach themselves German during their 20th century phase, which had meant a good eight months of conversation rife with Hitler jokes and little else.

Ari's interests had pushed her towards the sciences and mathematics side of things. She'd stood out amidst the majority of left-brained people in the commune with her fascination for biology, chemistry, physics, calculus, anything she could learn. This natural inclination had perhaps been egged on by a personality quirk that often put her at odds with popular opinion. Goethe had often wondered if her rampant lesbianism was as much for shock value as it was her God-given orientation. Ari was honest to a brutal fault, so no one doubted her declaration, but as the one-liner went on the commune:

_How do you know Ari's a lesbian within five seconds of meeting her?_

_She'll tell you._

Ari favoured black leather and piercings, giving herself up fully to the dyke stereotype because it suited her down to the ground. She was handy with machinery of all kinds and had the unofficial post of Repairwoman in the complex. From coffee makers to computers, motorbikes to the MRI machine in the commune's hospital, there was nothing she couldn't "tweak."

Nox was the quiet, softly pretty one, in constant opposition to her sister's volume and the sharp angles of her tall, bony figure. She was Goethe's best friend, and the two studied classic literature together, their interests being the same in theory, if not in practice. Goethe had more of an edge to her—digging into the gritty soul of what she read and shamelessly tearing out its heart to see how it beat. Nox was gentler in her methods, taking hours longer to complete the same tasks as Goethe, prying meaning from the words through solemn contemplation and thorough research. Goethe's haphazard brainstorming got her top marks for effort, if she lost a little on execution. Nox got consistently higher marks, _but, _Goethe reasoned, _she also spends way too much time reading into things when there's so much more to be done with life. _

Nox and Lirit were perfect for each other—patient, quiet, unassuming. Goethe figured they'd grow achingly old together, and never do anything more impulsive than perhaps go grocery shopping without a list. "The kind of people," Goethe often said, "you could leave the kids with if you went away for the weekend."

At which point the twins would break into chuckles. "Gogo, love, if you had a kid you'd drop it in the dustbin by accident," they'd howl.

"Right," said Gunnar with authority. "Ready to go? Did everyone bring a torch?" Goethe dug her tiny flashlight from the back pocket of her jeans, hoping the impact of her considerable arse hadn't crushed it to dust a minute earlier. She twisted the head and, to her relief, it gave forth a striking pale blue beam. Everyone else dug deep into pockets and bags, or else had their torches in hand already. The twins shouldered their backpacks and began play-fighting with their baton-like torches. Ari took a large apparatus from her satchel, something looking more akin to a searchlight than a torch. She flipped the switch on the base, hitting the twins right in the eyes.

"Aw leave off, Ari!" they groaned, throwing an arm over their faces and squinting.

"Shall we, boys?" Ari said dryly, swinging the wide, strong beam towards the door at the back of the entryway that lead to the spiraling staircase. She strode off towards it, leaving the rest to follow single-file. The twins loped after her like gangly hounds, and Goethe didn't move for a moment.

"Go on then, girls. I'll bring up the back," said Gunnar, motioning with his torch for them to go ahead. He offered them a quick, re-assuring grin and Goethe gave a tight-lipped twitching of the corners of her mouth in return as she and Nox followed the twins.

Their footsteps clanked and clattered on the wrought-iron steps, the twins muttering and laughing at some joke Goethe's ears didn't quite catch. Their torch beams were only shuddering flashes far below them as they descended into the cellars of the opera house. An accurate replica of the Opera Garnier—built to the last detail as it existed, both in reality and in Leroux's imagination. Entering through what used to be a store-room, close by the stables, they'd found the entrance to the cellars.

Goethe fought back a shiver as the pleasant cool of the entryway turned into a bone-chilling ache as they went deeper underground. The place smelt of wet stone and brackish water, and the slightest sound echoed loudly in the dark. Beyond the torchlight, the darkness was so thick that even these sounds seemed more solid than sight, as light revealed nothing more than the next step below and the occasional trainer heel of the person in front.

She came to a landing and stopped, shining her torch round to look for the others, revealing an open space crammed with abandoned set pieces, props, costumes and boxes with undetermined contents.

"Where is everyone?" she said aloud. Nox was standing behind her, quietly peering into the gloom of the cavern that had opened up before them.

"Where's the lake?" murmured Nox with confusion, and Goethe could picture the puzzled frown her friend often wore.

"First cellar, Go," said Gunnar from behind them as he, or rather his feet and torchlight, clattered into view on the staircase.

"Right," she muttered, feeling slightly ashamed of herself as she turned back towards the staircase and saw that it continued downwards.

"Long ways to go yet," said Gunnar as they continued downwards.

"I know!" snapped Goethe, speeding up her pace to catch up to the twins who sounded even further away.

She began to count the landings she reached, saying nothing and barely pausing to take note of the cellars as her feet were already pounding on the next step.

_Eight…_ she thought as she began rounding the curve of the last descent. _Finally._

She looked up and saw the gathering of lights not far ahead indicating where Ari and the twins had stopped to wait. Grinning with triumph, she leapt off the final step and landed in an ankle-deep puddle of sluggishly icy water. She muffled a squeal and awkwardly side-stepped onto a rise of damp, stony ground, shining her torch onto the pool at the bottom of the stairs.

"Careful, the lake comes right up to the steps there," Thanos called out.

"Thanks for the warning!" hissed Goethe, even as she heard Nox and Gunnar trying to stifle their chuckles while they nimbly jumped onto the rise behind her and she slopped over to where the other three stood. She shook her feet in vain, wrinkling her nose at the clammy, pungent clinging of her cuffs and sodden trainers.

"How do we get across?" asked Nox, shining her torch over the glassy black surface of the water.

"Did you miss the tall ship docked at the bottom of the stairs?"

"Haha, Phee."

"We'll walk 'round the shore," said Ari, throwing the light from her torch along the edges of the water. "It'll take a bit, but I don't think it's too far…"

"It's closest that way, I remember—to the left there," said Gunnar, pointing out from tight circle of wobbling light. "Come on, then."

They picked their way along the shoreline for ten minutes before coming to a dip where the lake lapped right against the crumbling earth and brick wall, resulting in an unsteady concave depression.

"It only looks about a foot deep…" said Ariadne, peering into the water with her torch.

"We could try and jump it," said Thanos with a shrug.

"It's too damp—you'll slip and crack your skull open," scoffed Goethe.

"Well thanks, MUM, I don't think I was asking you whether or not we should!"

"Oh will the pair of you shut up?" barked Phoenix.

"Is there anything we could put in the middle? Like a stepping-stone?" asked Nox. They began a short search of the area but came up with nothing on the bare, gritty rock that surrounded the lake.

"It's not like they'd've thought Erik'd have an empty oil drum down here, is it?" said Thanos. "It's as bare as an arse at a football riot."

"Oh sod it," said Goethe, "I'm already wet, I'll go." She stepped towards the water, before turning back to the others. "Hold this!" she tossed her flashlight to Nox. "Come on, I'll crouch and give you a leg across."

"Go, you don't have to—"

"I'm fine, Gun. Don't worry about it," she shook her head. "Just give me a second…" she took an elastic band from her wrist and caught up her long, curly, carrot colored hair into a loose bun so it was out of the way. "Right."

She sloshed into the water, gritting her teeth against the cold. It slapped about her mid-calves, and she crouched, carefully, spreading her feet apart to give herself some more balance and stability as she made sure she wouldn't topple over into the water. She took off her watch and slipped it into her pocket before plunging her bare arms into the water, braced on all fours.

"Now I'm just a jumping off point, mind," she said. "Don't be standing on me, or we'll both go down." The first light jiggled slightly as Ariadne took it at a bit of a run. Goethe shut her eyes and held still, barely feeling a tingling slap of shoe soles against her back, a springing release of the sudden weight as Ari sailed on to the far side and landed with a bit of a scrabble on the solid flat of the shore, moving to make clear a landing space for the next person.

Nox went next, with not quite enough force. Goethe nearly staggered for a moment under her friend before she jumped again. Ari grabbed her sister's hand and hauled her up the bank, the toes of her shoes hunting for purchase on the steep rock for a moment before she made it the rest of the way.

Thanos went, and then Phoenix, both brothers taking pity on their sister for once, and even admiring her pluck in helping out, even if they said nothing of it.

Gunnar came last, and even looked uncertain for a moment. Goethe looked up at his torchlight from under the strands of loose hair that hung in her face.

"Come on, Gun, we haven't got all day."

"You sure?"

"They've all gone, haven't they?" she huffed at the hair, squinting even though she knew it was pointless to try and look him in the eye in the darkness. "You're not going to kill me, and it may come as a surprise to you that this water's actually pretty cold, so if you could get the lead out your arse, that'd be really nice."

A moment later there was a thudding of feet and the wind got a little knocked out of Goethe even as the weight on her back lifted and she gingerly stood up and began to slosh over to the bank.

Gunnar leaned over to give her a hand up the bank and she gripped his forearm to pull herself up, almost letting him lift her since her legs were practically numb.

"Christ Jesus your hands are like ice!" He took her wet hands between his and began to rub them quickly. Goethe felt the prickling blood run back into her veins and winced a little, giving an involuntary gasp.

"That hurts, you bleeding—fuck—ow…" the prickling subsided and Gunnar's rubbing became less brisk.

"At least you can feel 'em," he said in a low voice.

"Yea…yea, sure…" she mumbled, dragging her tingling hands from his.

"Thanks for doing that…" he said. "You didn't have to." Goethe shrugged it off.

"It'd have been a waste of time if I hadn't."

"Ickle Gogo has proven herself worthy to tag along, now! Who'd've guessed?" crowed Thanos, curling an arm around her shoulders and knuckling her scalp lightly.

"Yea and it only took the humiliation of being a human springboard to do it!" said Goethe, scowling as she took back her torch from Nox. "How much further?"

"Not long," said Gunnar. "I think we're almost there."

Five more minutes proved him right as they spotted the structure built beside the lake within the cavern of the ninth cellar.

"The House on the Lake…" breathed Nox in awe.

"Stop speaking in capitals, Nox, it's precocious," said Ariadne, rolling her eyes and chewing her gum with vicious annoyance.

"And it's only a house…and a replica, at that," sneered Phoenix.

"You still gotta have some respect for it, Phee," said Goethe, shining her light on the entrance.

"Well," said Ari, "are we going inside or what?"

"Inside?" gasped Nox with small horror. "No one said we would…"

"It was implied, kitten," said Ari. "If you want to go back…"

"She'll not know the way back alone," said Goethe, frowning and jumping to defend her friend. "If she's not comfortable with it, that's fine. She doesn't have to—"

"Go…I…" Nox gulped. "I want to…I just didn't think…wow."

The contemplative moment was broken by the twin's mutual hooting as they tore past everyone and disappeared into the house.

"God, here we go…come on, Nox…" Goethe tugged at her friend's arm and marched into the house after her brothers.

Pale blue, white, gold—their torch lights flickered over the dusty interiors as they explored the rooms.

"Hey, I think I found the Louis-Philippe room!" called Goethe excitedly, shining her torch all around the room excitedly.

"Listen to this, then!" she heard someone call from down the hall, before the silence broke into rafter-shaking sound. She ran out into the hall and towards the sound, coming upon her brothers side-by-side at the massive pipe organ, cheerily plunking out what sounded suspiciously like "Hey Jude". Gunnar stood with his arms crossed, Ari was laughing herself sick and Nox looked white enough to faint.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Goethe yelled over the 'music'.

"What d'you think?"

"I think you're out of your bleeding minds! Someone's gonna hear us!"

"They can't hear anything down here—they'd've found Erik long before if everyone up there could hear every time he played a scale!"

"Erik's not real you barmy idiot!"

"Yea, but who's gonna be listening?"

"I am!" roared a single gruff voice above the melee. Goethe spun around and bit back a shriek as a figure loomed out of the darkness and into the light cast by their torches.

_Axel Lind…crazy old Axel…_

The twins stopped playing and looked at the older man with mouths agape. Goethe took a step back and glanced at her brothers.

"What on earth do you kids think you're doing?" Goethe could see her brothers weren't about to say anything possibly incriminating, so she swallowed over the lump in her throat and spoke up, quietly.

"We…we just wanted to…"

"See the forbidden sanctuary?" spat the old man.

"It's not forbidden!" shot back Goethe, suddenly angry in her fright. "No one said it was forbidden!"

"An understood taboo, missy!"

"Well…" Goethe faltered.

"It's not her fault," came Gunner's voice. "We led them down here…they'd never have come if we hadn't goaded them into—"

"Hey now, Gun, we never—" began Phoenix.

"Oh leave off, boys," said Gunnar with a slightly disappointed twist of his mouth. "We've been caught out, the game's over."

"The game's never over," muttered the twins in unison, with a discreet flash of grins.

"Oh it's over, you…young folk with your disregard for the rules that were put in place for your own safety…" began Axel.

"Well, why are YOU down here, anyway?" snapped Goethe. The twins hissed on an indrawn breath.

"Oh! Well-played, Gogo," chuckled Thanos.

"Shut up," she tossed back at her brother before turning back to face Axel, waiting for an answer.

"None of yours, missy," growled the man with the patches of graying fuzz clinging round the rough, craggy face that had given rise to many a rumour about Axel's mental state. The gray eyes that squinted at them had a kind of keenness to them despite the aura of dottiness that surrounded him. "Least I'm not foolin' with the bloody organ."

Goethe glared at Axel and propped her fists on her hips.

"Not good enough," she said. "You've no right to get on our case if you—"

"Jesus woman, you'd think you were my mother!" snorted Axel.

"She does that all the time," offered Phoenix, ignored by his sister, who still looked at Axel with her eyebrows raised.

"…Council pays me to come down here every Friday to make sure it's not fallin' apart…" muttered Axel after a moment.

"So it's not as sacred or forbidden as we thought!" crowed Ariadne.

"Still too sacred to have the likes o' you lot runnin' about down here!" said Axel.

"Well you're still just as much in the wrong if this gets out to anyone beyond us and the Council," said Ariadne.

"You blackmailin' me?" said Axel.

"No…we're all at risk here. If we all keep silent…" Ariadne let her implications fill the void left by her unspoken words.

"Aye, I see what you mean," sneered Axel. "We, none of us, take any blame." He sighed heavily. "Well, I guess that's all there is to be done, then…" He jerked his head towards the door. "Now be off with you."

They began to walk slowly from the house, only to have his voice call them back a moment.

"How'd you get in anyway?"

"…The western stairs. We came 'round by the lake shore," said Ari.

"Best leave by the south—it's closer."

"Well it's a bit hard to get a sense of direction down here. Could you point us in the right direction?" she asked.

"…I'm about done down here anyway. I'll go with you and show the way." Axel took his own torch from the pocket of his baggy workman's coveralls and struck out in front of them.

Within a few minutes he pushed open a low door that lead to another stairwell.

"Should take you straight up to the cloakroom," he said. "And I don't want to see you lot down here again, am I clear?"

"Yea…" muttered Goethe sullenly, even as Nox grabbed her by the arm.

"What was that sound?"

"What?" Goethe wrinkled her nose and they were all silent, listening.

"I thought I heard—there!"

"I hear it, too…" murmured Ariadne, with a puzzled frown nearly matching her sister's. "What on earth could be—"

A resounding crash from above caused the foundations of the building to shudder, and they all swayed and Nox stumbled, falling to her knees even as they heard, from far above, a thin, high-pitched sound, coming in bursts along with a dry rattling.

"Christ, they've come…they've come for us all…" said Axel on a dry whisper, his eyes darting frantically upwards for a bare moment before he turned and began herding them back into the gloom of the cavern. "Move, go on now!"

"What the hell do you mean?" asked Goethe. "The Council? If they know you're down here—"

"That's not the Council, you daft child. All of you, get in the sanctuary!" Steel threaded through the older man's tone and none dared disobey, meekly scuttling before the man went completely off his rocker.

As Gunnar and the twins came out of the stairwell, following the girls, Axel stayed behind the shut the door quietly, glancing up the stairs one last time before the door closed. He glanced at the knob.

"No lock…" he muttered. "Never any locks…Jesus Christ, they've come…I thought we'd have more time."

Ariadne stepped towards him.

"What the hell's going on here? Have you gone completely nutters?"

Axel rounded on her with a shining kind of fanaticism in his eyes.

"That sound, girl. Do you know what that sound is?" For a moment, no one spoke, and that same, strange, high-pitched staccato sifted down like dust from somewhere high above where they all crouched. Axel's eyes gleamed, his lips pressed into a thin line, his face livid.

"That sound…it's _screaming_," he hissed.


End file.
